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Looking at the generation that bore the pressure of the Great Depression, there are distinct features that will set them apart from others forever: monetary habits, hording tendencies and distrust in market stability.

What will the future generations see of the fallout from the Great Recession?

Women in the Workplace. The Rosie the Riveter is the icon for women entering the workplace in the 1940’s but it has taken recent changes to allow women to contribute to a family income. Women now contribute 47% of the family total income, more than 9% higher than even 25 years ago. Women have come back a recovered all the jobs they lost during the recession whereas men are still 2.1 million jobs short of pre-recession numbers.

Eco Aware. Seeing their parent’s struggle, instead of learning a core distrust for the market, generation Y has become proactively aware of their impact on the market and has reacted by becoming more ‘green.’ An entire generation’s thought process shifted to one feeling like they are responsible agents that can impact what is going on.

On Our Toes. The bursting housing bubble shook many people who were feeling just a little too comfortable with their living situation and reminded them that a marketplace is alive and needs to be attended to and nurtured. Americans lost $7 trillion in home equity. (Source) That is tough love. Spenders started saving a little more and security is the goal of many.

Rise of the Entrepreneur. Working for someone and working for yourself are becoming side by side goals. There is a wave of people keeping their day jobs while working to start up business of their own and then fully transition over to self-employed entrepreneurship. Before you go all Jerry MaGuire and break out on your own, take a look at these 20 questions from the U.S. Small Business Administration to make sure you’re ready to make the leap.

Bitcoin, a currency elusive to the government and cheaper for the consumer, is used worldwide. Bitcoin is not money in the traditional sense as it does not fall under the definition we have grown accustom to. Money is a common form of exchange for goods and services in place of bartering. It is a reliable way to swap earnings in place of goods and services. Money stores value and has a solid reputation in order to attract consumers.

Unlike major currencies of the world, Bitcoin is something different all together.

Bitcoins are a virtual, inexpensive transactional means of exchange that is, for all intents and purposes, untraceable and unregulated. It allows for the freedom of the purchase to exclusively remain in the consumers’ hands thus making bitcoin have a dangerous appeal. Governmental organizations have no way of monitoring the monetary transfers. Additionally, banks are eliminated from the scene. With no larger body having oversight, the popularity of Bitcoins has been phenomenal. In the last year, circulation of Bitcoin currency via web rose from just 490 million dollars to 7.9 billion worth in total value. (Money from nothing: Chronic deflation may keep bitcoin from displacing its fiat rivals Mar 15th 2014 | from the print edition)

Volatility of bitcoin and its limited recognition may keep it from ever becoming a standardized form of exchange. However, Bitcoin does serve its purpose as a discrete transaction. Many retailers are finding a compromise in using Bitcoin as medium exchange and pairing that with the use of real money as a principle accounting unit.

As of early this year, the real estate world has entered the realm of bitcoin.

Mr. Canning-Cooke may have found the answer in RealtyShares, a San Francisco startup that this week will become one of the first real-estate investment platforms to accept bitcoin. The firm, which operates a crowdfundingmarketplace connecting property owners with prospective investors, will allow bitcoin investments worth as little as $1,000—or just over one bitcoin—in various property ventures listed on its site. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626804579361520890893170

One firm with an eye towards actualizing these goals is Seedcoin, the world’s first virtual incubator for Bitcoin-based businesses. (Full disclosure: I have had the privilege of corresponding and talking with Eddy Travia, Seedcoin’s Co-founder and Chief Startup Officer. He has a great talent for making the issues involving alternative currencies — and the entrepreneurs developing the platforms, applications and wallets for Bitcoin — intelligible. And, while there are matters to resolve and additional points to address concerning the union between this currency and the real estate industry, I invite readers to learn more about the innovation already underway from Seedcoin.) http://realtytimes.com/consumeradvice/buyersadvice1/item/28140-bitcoin-and-real-estate-finance-innovation-and-ongoing-acceptance

Economically speaking, Bitcoin will cap at 21M units. Because of this, Bitcoin would have a unique and unseen impact on traditional economic tenants of inflation/deflation.

Bitcoin has the potential, not yet actualize, to be a game changer economically, politically and financially. The unregulated nature of the exchange harbors great worldwide appeal in tandem with great risk for heist and instability.

High School Education, Completed 40 Hours of Approved Qualifying Education Under a Supervisor, Must Complete 50 Additional Hours of Education in the First 12 Months, Annually Complete 90 Hours of on-going Education and 2,000 Hours of Appraisal Experience, Pass the Appraiser’s Exam with a 75%, More Education for Specific Certifications

Complete 10th Grade in High School, Complete a 60 Hour Pre-Licensing Course, Pass Both the National (80%) and State (70%) Exams , Submit an Application to the Board of Reality Regulation

**A Broker has more extensive demands.

May people ponder as to why it is so comparatively easy to become a real estate agent. People rally to encourage increased regulation on just ‘who’ it is that enters in industry. At the end of the day, fact is that yes, it is comparatively simple to become licensed as an agent. It is a whole different type of ‘requirements’ that allow an agent to become successful as an agent. The formal hurdles only show you the door to the kingdom; to obtain the keys, the office you chose to hang your license with, the amount of self-driven action and your ability as a salesman are equally important.

Getting pre-qualified or pre-approved is no longer just a good idea prior to planning a day or multiple days with your agent checking out homes—it a necessary step buyers need so they can have the power to write on a property they fall in love with lest they lose out to the next enthralled buyer who walks through their dream house’s front door.

What is a pre-qualification:

An easy step toward the purchase of your home, a pre-qualification letter is a basic evaluation as to the amount you are qualified to borrow and therefore purchase.

What is a pre-approval:

A pre-approval letter is a verifiable source of information provided to potential buyers from a lender. Is requires documented proof of employment, the source of your to-be down-payment, and other financial information that ultimately allows a potential buyer know exactly how much money they are qualified to borrow beyond what their gut is telling them they can afford. **They are not binding and if your financial situation changes, your lender will have to recalculate your maximum mortgage amount accordingly.

Why it is so important:

Getting pre-approved gives a buyer timely leverage in a negotiation. When you tour multiple homes and, with the help of a diligent agent, find “the one,” a pre-approval letter gives you the confidence to write up an offer in a timely manner so that you don’t get beat out in a competitive seller’s market. Even if you tie with another party on the submittal of an offer, the pre-approval letter is seen in favorable light and can give you the edge over the other offers.

If you do not have the pre-qualification/pre-approval there is a good chance by the time you secure that information that

a) you may have been looking the wrong price range or

b) you may have to write on your second place home since your first has an offer in on it already.

This year, our Thinking Outside of the Box Approach allowed us to have a more dynamite year than ever before!

When looking for a new home on the market, there are a number of resources a person can turn to. (Beings how I am an agent, I would mark a realtor down as your most valuable resource…) In today’s modern era, the phone app generation is increasingly more targeted towards making the buying/selling experience more a part of your life than a rock-block in it. Some great apps that come highly recommended the industry are:

This morning I downloaded an app that was launched about a year ago that always app users to interface with architects, contractors and designers as well as simply “capture, share and engage on designs they love,” said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow chief marketing officer, in a statement.” – (See More)

Watching online videos is now a mainstream activity. 78% of people watch at least once a week and 55% watch everyday

Branded video content reaches nearly half (46%) of all internet users in the UK. More than half of these people (54%) go on to click though to the brand’s website (Econsultancy)

80% of Internet users recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days; 46% took some action after viewing the ad (Online Publishers Association)

Video promotion is over 6 times more effective than print and online (b2bmarketing.net)

Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research says a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words

81% of senior marketing executives now use online video content in their marketing programs, up from 70% in 2011 (MarketingProfs)

Cisco expects video to account for 57% of consumer internet traffic by 2015, nearly four times as much as regular web browsing and email

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text (3M Corporation & Zabisco)

We are now watching $3 billion hours of online video every day.

There is a drawback to this seemingly golden goose form of marketing. Amateurish production damages marketing. A video that looks like the Blair Witch Project will do the opposite of sell a home, and bad lighting, poor sound, a lack of editing and a lot of “uh, umm, uh” and blank stares make a bad impression. We encourage real estate agents, brokerages, teams and franchises to study long and hard before embarking upon video and when ready, selecting a quality videography team. The videos also offer some SEO benefits since YouTube videos (when done well) tend to rank well in Google search results. (http://agbeat.com/video/the-unavoidable-case-for-using-video-in-real-estate-marketing/)

As an agent, you must consider 1) your talent level and 2) your goals for a video.

-TALENT LEVEL-

The bar has been raised due to the inundation of videos the average person watches today. Quality, professional footage blending with quality, professional sound are both two very complex and specifically skilled talents that as full time agents, one does not necessarily have. So prior to going out and shooting, it is highly recommended that you go to school and spend a significant amount of time learning about the process, the software, the lenses, angling, sound technology, ect. A few sites that lend themselves to such training are:

But, if you demand a personal higher quality, you need to know when you need a professional. Similarly to when buyers or sellers do not see the use of an agent, as an agent you can overlook the fact that you are just outside of your area of expertise and hiring someone ultimately more acutely talented will yield better results.

That is a heavy load for one video. Here are a few recommendations on how to achieve the results you seeking.

Branded vs. Unbranded. Winans and McDonough made the decision not to brand the first video and that worked in their favor. “Our names were still on it, just not our company,” says McDonough. “We did brand another video on just the Dallas-Fort Worth area but that didn’t go as viral,” says Winans.

Go Local. Winans and McDonough hired a public relations intern to write scripts for community videos, which they plan to start shooting in the next few months. “We’ve got 10 scripts done and in another month we’ll have eight more,” says Winans. These are videos that they’ll offer to their agents, who can then brand them to their name and the company. “We like that it makes them look like professionals and experts in the community,” says McDonough.

Find Talent. While the real estate executives used a production company for their first few videos, they found that local college students and recent college graduates were just as good but less costly. “We are getting the videos done, script and production, for about $400 a piece,” says Winans. “It maximizes our investment.” They simply put a notice out on Craigslist and interviewed the top four candidates. “The candidates had to have their own professional video equipment,” says McDonough.

Host Them on YouTube. To save on hosting costs, Winans and McDonough chose to host the videos on YouTube. “It’s the No. 1 video site, so our videos will get noticed,” says Winans. They also get the videos out via social media and through the agents.

Two things we all think of when we think of Thanksgiving. It’s a time to reflect, be thankful, enjoy the company of family and friends, and to EAT. My daughters are now old enough to truly participate in the all celebrations of Thanksgiving, a holiday steeping in tradition.

The house is filled with family and we all woke with that warm, fuzzy holiday feeling and began prep for the grand tomorrow. We started out the day by sharing what we were thankful for and writing it on the chalkboard in our kitchen.

Sam this year is thankful for “socks”, which,

when I think about it, are the unsung heroes of any wardrobe.

Avery is thankful for toys, chicken, and ham.

I’m going to assume that was her five-year-old way of saying that she is lucky enough to have wonderful toys to play with and wholesome food to fill her belly each day. Yeah…I’m positive that’s what she meant.

Then we move on to making Turkey, but not in the traditional sense. Each year we make name cards for everyone that will be gathered around the table. This year we chose to have the girls make hand-print turkeys. We cut and traced and then glue and feathers flew. The end result was a beautiful array of unique looking turkey’s (including a rare con-joined turkey).

Now it’s time for the best part of Thanksgiving, Pie. My mom has always made the best apple pie using only MacIntosh and homemade crust. Both my parents grew up in Massachusetts where the Mac is the apple of choice. They can be pretty hard to find in Montana so these apples were driven in from Colorado, because there’s no other way to make Mom’s apple pie.

We pour, we cut, we blend, we roll and the crust slowly takes shape. A beautiful heap of hard work, fun and love; this pie is special, not only because of its wonderful taste, but because this year, for the first time, it is being make with three generations of love. Grandmother, daughters, and granddaughters all gathered together to pass on tradition.